RFP for Resource Development Consultants

Encore.org is a national nonprofit building a movement to leverage the experience of adults in midlife and beyond to improve communities and the world. This innovative and influential organization seeks an exceptionally creative, energetic, positive individual with a strong background in fundraising to assist with our resource development efforts.

Background

Currently, Encore is largely funded by national foundations such as Atlantic, Deerbrook, Eisner, Einhorn, MetLife, Packard, Templeton and others. Encore’s budget is ~ $6.5M in 2016 and the lion’s share of its revenue is made up of large foundation grants with a growing number of $10,000 – $50,000 gifts from high-net-worth individuals. Marc Freedman, Encore’s visionary founder and CEO, is a master fundraiser in his own right and has been largely leading fundraising since the organization’s inception.

To build on this success, Encore will now turn toward resourcing its development department and securing new streams of revenue. Initially it will increase its efforts toward family or regional foundations and high net worth individuals and will need assistance with planning, research, developing collateral, project management, and setting up systems. Encore would like to work with consultants in 2016 and will likely hire additional staff to sustain this work in early 2017.

In the short term, Encore is looking to bring on a firm or a mix of independent consultants to manage three distinct, but interrelated pieces of work – detailed below. Ideally, consultants will be near San Francisco and available to meet and work at Encore’s office at the Presidio as needed. We are open to talking with consultants who would take on all three pieces of the work or discrete elements of the work.

What We Do

Through an inventive program portfolio, strategic alliances and storytelling, Encore.org demonstrates the value of life experience in solving society’s greatest problems – from education to the environment, health care to homelessness – and builds the case for the encore movement as a new source of human talent dedicated to creating a better future for future generations. Encore.org engages in significant communications work, is the hub of an expanding network of individuals and organizations, and runs programs designed to leverage the experience of those in later life for social good. For more on our programs, visit www.encore.org.

Our Culture

Encore is part of a social movement that challenges old norms and seeks to establish a new definition of success in later life. We are a small geographically-distributed team, committed to making a significant impact. We seek opportunities to leverage the direct efforts of our team through the media, partnerships, and a national network of like-minded organizations; and we attract people who think about how small investments can yield big results in the service of Encore.org’s mission.

Perhaps most important, we are an organization in a period of transition and growth. We work in a dynamic environment that values mutual respect, rapid response to changing conditions or new opportunities, flexibility and intelligence, as well as a sense of humor and humility. Those who thrive tend to be creative, entrepreneurial types who are dedicated to our mission and who know how to execute ambitious plans in a lean environment. For more information about Encore.org, visit www.encore.org

Areas of Expertise Needed

Major Gifts

In partnership with CEO, President and Encore Champions co-founders, we are looking for leadership and assistance in the areas of:

Develop and prioritize major gifts prospects (extensive research has been done, the next step is to cultivate and solicit our prospects)

Develop new, creative, and compelling giving opportunities

Assist with developing collateral materials and small donor events

When appropriate, accompany the President, CEO or board member/s to meetings

Support leadership and board of directors; ensure that cultivation and solicitation plans are on track

Grants

It will be important that the consultant knows the national/regional foundation world, particularly in the aging, social entrepreneur and youth space, as well as family foundations. We are looking for leadership and assistance in the areas of:

Manage foundation pipeline and develop prospect research

Work with CEO and other members of Leadership Team to identify connections to prospects and support them with high-touch cultivation of program officers and foundation presidents

Assist with developing a travel schedule for foundation meetings

Assist with proposal preparation, project management, and packaging

Manage grants calendar, deadlines, documents, etc.

Infrastructure and Systems Building

We need leadership and assistance in the areas of setting up systems, mail appeals and campaigns, utilizing Salesforce, and developing a development department dashboard to report progress and metrics.

Develop and manage a development dashboard and report progress monthly to President, CEO, and Leadership Team.

Develop and manage Salesforce as a more comprehensive tool for fundraising

Prepare thank you letters, gift acknowledgments

Develop mail appeals that begin to turn the largely-untapped 80,000 mailing list of contacts into donors through mail, email, and social media.

Work with Encore to develop and implement messaging and/or mini-campaigns that are compelling to new donors and lead to increased donations.

Qualifications

In particular, we are looking for consultants who have at least 5-10 years of fundraising experience and will bring: